Sanchez officially appointed new manager...

http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsA ... tment.aspx

 

Just beat me to it!!

He is leaving Northern Ireland for his position at Fulham which is great news for us. Now let's see if we can get Healy.

I am happy with his appointment, and I've head from a player or two how impressed they are with Lawrie's training regime and is confidence in them.

Lawrie Sanchez' Black and White Army

 

I support the squad and manager for next season. Good news that this is resolved sooner rather than later.

May the Sanchez' BlaWhi Army songs begin!!!

 

I am not too keen on this appointment. I saw very little in what Sanchez was implementing in the team in his first four matches to believe he had what it takes to be a Premiership manager and lead this team to new heights.

With some of the rumoured bigger name candidates out there like Claudio Ranieri, Claude Puel and the one I heard this morning, Ronald Koeman, I would have liked Mohamed Al Fayed to at least conduct some more interviews before making this hire.

Can someone tell me what Sanchez did to deserve this? Yes, we did avoid relegation, but in all honesty, we beat a second string Liverpool squad to do that. The win was impressive and one I will remember for a long, long time, but the things Sanchez seemed to be doing seemed eerily similar to that of his predecessor Chris Coleman.

I hope I am proven wrong andf Sanchez works out, but it seems Al Fayed thinks he can go cheap again. Sanchez has recently been known to get the most of his squad with Northern Ireland. Does that mean Mo is NOT going to invest much and expect Sanchez to take the current squad with little to no changes and compete for a top ten finish? I would hope not, but with Al Fayed running the show, you just never know.

 

Re: RE: Sanchez officially appointed new manager...

Playing career

Club career
As a player, Sanchez is most famous for scoring the goal that won Wimbledon the FA Cup in 1988 against Liverpool, a match widely believed to be one of the biggest cup final upsets in history.

Sanchez had first played for Reading, between 1977 and 1984, before moving to Wimbledon for £30,000. He scored the goal that got the Dons promoted to the First Division in 1986.

He is believed to be the first player to be sent off for a professional foul, after committing a deliberate handball in a Football League Trophy match against Oxford United in 1982 [1].

In 1993 Sanchez left Wimbledon for newly-promoted Swindon Town, but lasted only a year.


International career
Sanchez won three international caps for Northern Ireland, qualifying by virtue of his Northern Irish mother. He had also been invited to try out for the Ecuadorian national team, but declined on the grounds of distance.


Managerial career

Club career
He became player-manager of League of Ireland club Sligo Rovers in 1994 and in his first season led them to the semi-final of the 1995 FAI Cup.

In 1995, he returned to Wimbledon and became reserve team manager, winning the Football Combination in his first season in charge. He managed the reserves for under four years, before taking the reins at Wycombe Wanderers in 1998.

Sanchez rescued the team from relegation that season, and in 2001 guided the club (then in the Second Division) to one of its greatest moments, playing Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-finals; Wycombe lost a respectable 2-1, having held Liverpool to 0-0 for most of the match.

However, Sanchez's side failed to meet the ensuing expectations generated by the cup run, finishing only 11th in 2001-02 and 18th in 2002-03. After a poor start to the 2003-04 season, Due to family problems Sanchez resigned as Wycombe Manager on September 30, 2003.

Sanchez was named as caretaker manager of Fulham following the sacking of Chris Coleman on 10 April 2007.[1]

Following a successful spell as caretaker-manager of Fulham, in which he helped the side avoid relegation, Sanchez was given the manager's job full time."Sanchez quits NI for Fulham job", BBC Sport, 2007-05-11. Retrieved on 2007-05-11. </ref>


International career
Sanchez didn't have to wait too long for a new job; after Sammy McIlroy resigned as Northern Ireland manager following a disastrous string of results which saw them finish bottom of their Euro 2004 qualification group, Sanchez was appointed as Northern Ireland's new manager in January 2004.

Since his appointment, the side has improved markedly, winning their first game in nearly three years, breaking the team's 1,298 minute-long goal drought, and lifting them from an all-time low of 124 in the FIFA world rankings when he took over, to the joint highest position the nation had ever acheived (33rd) in April 2007[2].

Sanchez signed an extension to his contract in March 2005 and on 7 September 2005 he led the team to a surprise victory against England, winning 1-0 in Belfast in a World Cup qualifying match. Later that same year he guided Northern Ireland to an impressive 1-1 draw against Portugal, who went on to reach the World Cup 2006 semi-finals. On 6 September 2006, despite twice going behind, Northern Ireland beat Spain 3-2 in a Euro 2008 qualifying match, David Healy scoring a hat trick.

Previous to that match, however, Sanchez had been the subject of harassment from the media following the team's opening Euro 2008 qualifier at Windsor Park, which the team lost 3-0 to Iceland.

It was reported that Sanchez, on leaving the pitch after the final whistle of the Spain match, took off his Irish Football Association jacket and tie and threw these into the crowd, thus leading to speculation that he would resign from his position as national coach. Speculation finally ended the following Saturday when Sanchez released a statement confirming that negative press comments following the Iceland defeat had made him consider his position. However, he decided to stay in the post, citing the support of the fans (inter alia) as a key factor; indeed, Sanchez remains remarkably popular amongst all those who have an interest in Northern Irish football, especially the diehards in the 'Green and White Army' [3]

Sanchez made further progress by leading Northern Ireland to a 2-1 victory over Sweden on March 28, 2007 at Windsor Park, which took them to the top of their qualification group.

In December 2006 Sanchez, who is currently under contract until November 2007, stated that he did not expect to extend his role as Northern Ireland manager beyond the end of their current European Qualification campaign. However, he did not rule out another role within the Northern Ireland set-up if it was offered to him by the IFA. [4] Despite this statement, Sanchez resigned as coach of Northern Ireland on May 11, 2007 in order to become the manager of Fulham full-time.


Honours
Wimbledon
F.A. Cup winner - 1988


All in all, I don't think a bad choice at all. And he looks like the quite, "I'll kick your ass", kind of guy. (There's an actor he looks like, I just can't pin it down yet.)

 

RE: Re: RE: Sanchez officially appointed new manager...

It's really hard to get a feel for a manager, when he comes into a situation like this. It was a win - win for LS. If we went down, there was nothing he could do and he could move on. If we did well, he'd get the job for sure. Needless to say, he fell right in the middle of both and got the job.
We did have a pretty tough schedule to finish the season and with our leaky defense and lack of punch on the offensive end, there's only so much a coach can do in a month. Sure there are a lot of names flying around, but who really knows who's interested. I like the hire. Now we can start working on next season. I'm sure LS already has an idea, who needs to go and what he needs to bring in to put his stamp on the team....now if only MAF will let him bring in some Prem talent.

 

RE: Re: RE: Sanchez officially appointed new manager...

From Dutch on TFI, which I completely agree with 100%.

Why don't we wait and see how the first 10 games of next season go, and who he brings in over the summer?

Why don't we see first if he gets our defence organized after 5 years of neglect?

Why don't we see if there is evidence that prime young talent like Liam get developed into players who look up for a pass rather than a fly hack?

Why don't we see if our team starts to look like something greater than the sum of it's parts and then judge the new setup?

As someone else mentioned below - I don't suppose Wigan fans were hanging out the bunting when Jewell came in, or Reading when Coppell was announced....

Conversely I can recall lots of barcodes dancing on their seats when big name Gullit came in.... And I can recall people saying that George Burley was the messiah after he guided Ipswich to 5th spot (Where are they/him now?)

FFC won't attract Scolari or Erikson. We don't want big name losers like Gullit. We can leave "free spending" Steve Bruce to the Brums so he can waste money on the Diaos and Butts of this world. We just need a decent, hardworking, organized and above all professional manager who can make us operate effectively as a unit and get the best out of our squad and back room.

No reason to believe at this stage it can't happen with LS. We had seen it not happening with Cookie.

Football has a great way of making people look stupid with their predictions - so all the doom mongers should perhaps keep their powder dry til October at the earliest.

I'd love to see LS do well. Why wouldn't I? I'm an FFC fan.

 

RE: Re: RE: Sanchez officially appointed new manager...

I'm thinking the players themselves had a hand in this.

Not just from the observation of Diop's apparent attitude renewal... but for me the interesting input came from Niemi. Recall how he was the apparent lone voice when CC was fired? And we just saw a statement on how he now was for Sanchez.

 

RE: Re: RE: Sanchez officially appointed new manager...

Let me make myself clear, I will be pulling for Lawrie Sanchez to succeed as manager. After all, I am a Fulham supporter. I just feel the decision to bring him on full time was a bit hasty. I agree something needed to be done quickly ahead of what will hopefully be a busy summer for Fulham.

As for the book above about all of Sanchez's accomplishments, that means very little to me. Particularly the part about his playing career. Being a good player means little to being a good manager. I respect what he has done with Northern Ireland, but I have many questions about Sanchez as Fulham manager heading into next season.

I hope I am proven wrong.

 

RE: Re: RE: Sanchez officially appointed new manager...

You asked, and I provided. There are many instances of good players sucking as managers, but there are many instances of decent players being very good managers also (Coppell, for instance).

I agree with Mike's, or I guess Dutch's, sentiments on the situation. Although, barring a near complete meltdown, I give him until December. I'd rather have Sanchez in charge with someting to prove, than one of this big names who thinks they don't have to prove anything to anyone.

 

Re: RE: Re: RE: Sanchez officially appointed new manager...

I am not exactly sure the angle you are taking with the above statement, but what the players say in the media about a manager means very little to me. Do you really expect Niemi or another player to throw their boss under the bus?

 

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Sanchez officially appointed new manager

Tom, that's twice you've pointed to things that do not mean much to you, including his experience playing, experience coaching, and now what the players may think.

What does mean something to you?

 

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Sanchez officially appointed new manager

ooohh... a family spat!


I think Tom's pointing to the fact that the players have an investment in acceptance of a new manager, providing they want to remain with a club.

I agree, somewhat, with Tom's assessment of Sanchez' record. All the results pointed to are short term resuscitation cites. The kind where long-ball pays off.

The real points are more subtle... and that's why I pointed out Niemi; certainly he didnt have to go 'on-record' in either case. the former statement was not anti-Lawrie.. it was pro-CC.
He could have kept mum after Sanchez came in, just kissing up in private.. but he allowed his view on it to go public.

That's the 'nuance' that counts for me.

 

Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Sanchez officially appointed new man

I never said anything negative about his coaching. I just pointed out that while he has done a nice job with Northern Ireland, coaching on the international level is not quite the same as coaching everyday in the Premiership.

As for what is important to me in hiring a coach is to get somebody in with positive experience managing. Finding a guy who has the ability to unearth talent and get the most out of his current team as well. Perhaps Lawrie did get the most the out of the Northern Ireland squad, but I am still skeptical in his ability to find new players outside of Northern Ireland and I also not so sure he has what it takes as a manager to succeed.

I am sure I am looked at negatively for not blindly supporting the club and its decision to bring Sanchez on full time, but he has shown me nothing at all in his first four matches and the idea of bringing in David Healy, his Northern Ireland player, does little to excite me.

The bottom line is this, I was hoping a new manager could and would excite me about the 2007-2008 season, but in actuality I get the feeling it will be more of the same. Very little money to spend and a relegation battle at the end of next season.

 

I am not saying the players feelings had no impact on things with Coleman and Sanchez, but what I did say was that what players say in the media regarding managers means very little to me. I do not believe much of anything spewed in the media by players. They are all trained to say certain things about the team, management, etc.

 

Best fans, though. Certainly the smartest.

 

Well said. I'm not going to get involved in the little spat, because I'll end up in pettyfrog's therapist chair again. (He is expensive)

The MAIN thing I am worried about is that if we sign a bunch of players and do poorly in the first 10 games, LS will be sacked. Just a question, but when was the last time a manager was sacked during a season and then lead the team to a top 10 finish? I don't know and I am seriously asking.

I just don't want to end up like Charlton or West Spam.

 

Tom, I enjoy your arguments and your opinion but NEVER BLINDLY FOLLOW/SUPPORT YOUR CLUB. You do no justice to them or other fans by turning a blind eye to bad decisions.